An investigation into the capabilities of remote scanning LIDARs to measure wind turbulence was recently conducted as part of a collaboration between renewable energy consultancy SgurrEnergy, the University of Oklahoma and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

SgurrEnergy's laser-based remote sensing device, Galion Lidar, was used to gather the measurements at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) site in northern Oklahoma. Alongside a selection of other measurement devices, Galion Lidar was deployed to measure using a tri-doppler technique to calculate zonal, meridional and vertical wind speed components every second so that the mean wind speed and turbulence statistics could be calculated, according to SgurrEnergy.

The company says the comparison of device results showed that the tri-doppler technique, conducted by Galion, recorded larger variances in mean wind speeds and measured small scales of turbulence that were not picked up by a standard LIDAR scanning strategy. SgurrEnergy claims the techniques used in this measurement campaign show that LIDAR technology has the ability to measure high-frequency turbulence in wind energy applications.